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After consuming Alekhine's games I leapt to Tal, since I looked upon positional players with disdain (and thus avoided gods like Botvinnik and Smyslov until I hit the far side of 16). Naturally, more hero worship followed. A lifetime later (1987) I finally made his acquaintance, sharing a wonderful breakfast with the charming gentleman at the Bel Air Hotel before driving him to Disneyland.

This game isn't Tal's best by any means. However, I first saw it when I was 13 years old and its tactical themes made a lasting impression.
I remember playing in the American Open in Santa Monica (before us chessplayers were banished to depressing airport locations!) when I was 15. Roy Ervin sat next to me and we began to chat. Suddenly he told me how much pleasure this game had given him and, as if in a trance, we set up a board and played through the game from memory--he made the moves for White while I played Tal's.

B Gurgenidze -- M Tal
Moscow, 1957
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.e4 Bg7 8.Be2 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Nd2 Na6 11.Re1 Nc7 12.a4 b6 13.Qc2 Ng4 [There is no need to quote modern theory. Suffice it to say that Tal's handling of the Modern Benoni convinced me to take up this active system myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to emulate Tal's tactical flair and gave it up (at 16 years of age) for the more positional Nimzo-Indian.] 14.h3?? [How times change! As a kid, this move seemed completely plausible to me. Looking at it now, I can't believe the very strong Gurgenidze would play such an obvious lemon. Far stronger was 14.Bxg4 Bxg4 15.Nc4] 14...Nxf2! [I can't imagine Tal taking more than a few seconds to decide on this sacrifice.] 15.Kxf2 Qh4+ 16.Kf1 [White no longer has any choice, and must hope that the coming storm won't turn his bones to paste. Since 16.Kg1 Qxe1+ doesn't inspire confidence, the only alternative is 16.g3, but this gets stomped by 16...Bd4+ 17.Kf3 Qh5+ 18.g4 Qxh3+ 19.Kf4 Be3 mate.] 16...Bd4 17.Nd1 Qxh3! [This is the move that hooked me on this game. A young player can't help but love the position after 18.gxh3 Bxh3 mate.] 18.Bf3 Qh2 19.Ne3 [Also critical is 19.Nf2, a move that has been analyzed rather poorly in a couple of different sources. For example, 19...Ba6+ was recommended by one annotator who claimed a Black win after 20.Be2 Qh4 21.Nh3 Bc8 22.Nf3 Qxh3 23.Nxd4 Qh1+ 24.Kf2 Qh4+ 25.Kf1 cxd4 26.Qxc7 Qxe4 27.Qxd6 Bg4. However, instead of 27.Qxd6?, White has 27.Qc4! (the Queen has to rush back and defend its King!) when Black probably doesn't have better than 27...Bh3, forcing a perpetual check (Extremely tempting is 27...Bb7, but I don't quite trust it after 28.Qd3 Qxd5 29.Bf3 Qa5 30.b4! Rxe1+ 31.Kxe1 Qxb4+ 32.Bd2). So, does this mean that 19.Nf2 allows White to make a draw? No, far better than 19...Ba6 is 19...Nxd5! (This is more fun than 19...Ba6+ anyway!) 20.exd5 Rxe1+ 21.Kxe1 Qg1+ 22.Nf1 (Somehow P.H. Clarke, in his "Mikhail Tal's Best Games of Chess," missed this Knight retreat in his notes.) 22...Ba6 23.Nd3 Re8+ 24.Be2 Bc8!, and White has no defense to the threatened 25...Bg4.] 19...f5! [Calmly opening up new lines of attack to the White King.] 20.Ndc4 fxe4 21.Bxe4 Ba6 [The raw power of Black's raking Bishops makes a lasting impression.] 22.Bf3 [No better is 22.Bd2 Rxe4! 23.Qxe4, when my favorite way to win is 23...Re8 24.Qc2 Nxd5 with Armageddon to follow.] 22...Re5 23.Ra3 Rae8 24.Bd2 [On 24.Rd3, Black gets a winning attack with 24...Rf5!.] 24...Nxd5

[This game, and this position in particular, taught me an important lesson: When attacking, make sure you get every piece to participate!] 25.Bxd5+ Rxd5 26.Ke2 Bxe3 27.Rxe3 Bxc4+, 0-1. White resigned rather than face 28.Qxc4 Qxg2+ 29.Kd1 Qxd2 mate.

After my Tal phase, I made my way through the games of Botvinnik and Smyslov (Years later I finally went over the games of Steinitz, Lasker, and Capablanca--for some reason I've never been that interested in the games of Euwe. In 1993 I went even further back and made a thorough study of the best players in the 1800's. Many of these old timers were very strong, but I was shocked to see just how weak Staunton was. He wouldn't have had a chance against Morphy, which is why he made such an effort to avoid him.), and these two players helped me acquire some understanding of that integrated mix of positional play and tactics that a player has to possess if he wishes to be successful at a high level.
In Lone Pine, 1976, I got the thrill of my life when I was paired with Smyslov! I was given the white pieces and had the evening to prepare for the game. Though Smyslov plays many openings, I suddenly became obsessed with the idea that he would try 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 g6 against me, even though he had never used this line before. In fact, at that time 5...g6 was considered to be a blunder, and my friends laughed at me for thinking he would play such a weak variation. Nevertheless, I KNEW he was going to play this way (X-Files music begins playing at this point!), and prepared for nothing else (memorizing the accepted refutation).
Sure enough, he did play this system, refuted the refutation, and hardly sat down at the board as he routed me without mercy. This game was published in magazines all over the world and brought 5...g6 into prominence. Later, the Soviet grandmaster Suetin used it in a middlegame book as an example of how not to play for white. Lovely! I was now immortalized as a human punching bag!

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